WANT FRIES WITH THAT?

Wednesday

Feb 1, 2017 at 9:15 AMFeb 1, 2017 at 9:20 AM

Pat Young

THE FOUNDER: Throughout his lengthy career, Michael Keaton has been an actor who consistently appears to be "selling" us his performance (See CLOSING CREDITS). Casting him as future McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc, who was the driving force behind the golden arches, is a near stroke of genius since he spends a good portion of the movie pitching everything from blenders that make multiple milkshakes to restaurant franchises. But in the film's early segments, he stumbles across a pair of brothers (John Carroll Lynch, Nick Offerman) who have figured out a system of getting food out quickly to customers resulting in sizeable profits. The path to this discovery is told in a clever flashback sequence highlighted by a "rehearsal" on a tennis court. Afterwards, Robert Siegel's (THE WRESTLER) screenplay takes us through the ups and downs Kroc endured to nationally franchise the sibling's hamburger stand in his own image while stealing their idea and eventually screwing them out of hundreds of millions in royalties. It's a less than subtle indictment of the American Dream and reinforces the theme in the shamefully underseen 99 HOMES (2014) that corporate "winners" get that way by making certain that someone else loses. Ironically, most of the key figures at McDonald's who are recognized in the epilogue are given short shrift in the film. There are rather sizeable gaps in the subplot involving Kroc and the woman who would become his second wife (Linda Cardellini) and who was married to one of his franchisees. Despite the title, which may well be an ironic device, the movie is also about the McDonalds brothers and Lynch (FARGO) and Offerman (SIN CITY) are both excellent enough to have their story be the subject of its own movie. Like a Big Mac, this film is pretty satisfying. But unlike that same "guilty pleasure", it won't clog your arteries or bust your diet. CRITIC"S GRADE: B